The present invention relates to major household appliance, such as dish washers, clothes washers and clothes dryers for example. More particularly it relates to an improved control assembly for such appliances. It is very desirable to indicate to the user which cycle or mode of operation has been selected. In prior machines with push buttons or rotary controls that protrude from the front of the escutcheon assembly this was accomplished by the depressed position of the actuated push button or the angular position of the rotary control. It also can be accomplished with indicator lights at significant added cost.
Many present day major appliances use mechanical push button switch controls overlaid by a flexible cover sheet which is depressed to actuate individual push buttons. Such control assemblies provide the appearance and feel of electronic controls at a lower cost. With such control assemblies the user cannot see which push button is depressed. In addition, in order to reliably actuate the push buttons through the flexible cover sheet, push button mechanisms have been improved so the push buttons have a very short travel between their extended and depressed positions, often on the order of about 0.06 inch. This short travel makes it very difficult to actuate a mechanical system to indicate the push button position.
Switch mechanisms have been known for years which include various arrangements to provide a light adjacent a switch for indicating that the switch is in a particular position or condition. Such arrangements normally include an internal light source and a prism and reflector system for directing a portion of the light to a particular lens or opening when the switch is in a particular position. Such systems are complicated and expensive. In addition the internal light source normally has a life much shorter then the switch and must be replaced from time to time.
The users of major household appliances normally manipulate the controls and check on the status of the appliance only when there is an appreciable level of ambient light present, that is either during daylight or with the room lighting on. The present invention takes advantage of this fact to provide a simplified control assembly that uses ambient light to indicate to the user the status of the control switch mechanism.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved appliance control assembly that indicates to the user the status of the controls.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an improved control assembly that utilizes reflected ambient light to illuminate a light port when an associated switch actuator is in a predetermined condition.